When was the last time you read a book out loud? I can say for me personally it was last year. I was not reading it to a child or a group of children. I was not reading it to anyone in particular. I was actually just reading my latest project.
We, as writers, will edit our WIP and edit it to death only to do it a few more times. But we won’t catch everything. Hence why we have beta readers, critique groups and poor souls who we ask for help. That will get more if not all of the mistakes out of your manuscript.
But there is always the mistakes that no one sees. But we are not just talking about grammar. I’m talking about loopholes, inconsistencies and the likes. That is how I found out in my Jasper series I had named their mom Sally by the name of Sarah and a few other S names. No one had picked up on that. But after reading it out loud I caught it.
Yes, it is time-consuming and you will want to rush it or maybe stop completely, especially if your novel runs in the thousands of words. So how important is it to you? How perfect do you want it to be? Are you okay, once the book goes to print only to find mistakes?
It all depends on how you want your work and you to be represented. We are not going to get all the mistakes every single time but a good effort certainly can’t hurt.
Sharon C. Williams-Author 